You can read this exclusive content thanks to the FALATH & PARTNERS law firm, which assists American people with Slovak roots in obtaining Slovak citizenship and reconnecting them with the land of their ancestors.
"Wow, you guys look alike, are you brothers?" asked Slovak-American Ron Shevock's wife after meeting in person with people from the Falath & Partners law company that assisted him with obtaining documents necessary to eventually get the Slovak Living Abroad certificate.
"It was really funny. Everyone was looking at her like she was crazy," he told the Slovak Spectator, adding that when he first visited Slovakia in 2024 and looked around, the way people looked made him feel like he was back home where he grew up.
"Slovakia felt oddly - maybe oddly is not the right word - but it felt like home. Something about the people, their accents, the food. I felt more connection with Slovakia after only being there for a couple of days. I would have a hard time describing it," he said.
Ron's surname Shevock may ring a bell — just a few months ago The Slovak Spectator talked to his sister, Jennifer, who said that even though they had been close before, the process of getting citizenship brought them even closer. Now, you'll get to hear his side of the story.
Feeling at home
Just like his sister, Ron was born and raised in northeastern Pennsylvania. Back in the early part of the last century, it was known for coal mining; their grandfathers worked in the mines like many other Slovaks.
"A lot of the immigrants from Europe settled in the area to work in the coal mines, and a lot of the towns that popped up in the region have a very common lineage amongst them. There's one town, Pittston, known for its strong Italian background. Almost everybody from from Italy settled there. In our little town, Nanticoke, a lot of people from Slovakia and Poland settled down," he said.
"Growing up, the way people look, their facial structure – when I went to Slovakia, I'm looking around and I'm like, I'm back home. There was some similarity that connected me to growing up in my town," he mused, adding that his wife is from the same town and she noticed the similarity as well. She has Polish, Ukrainian and British roots.
Just like his sister, he knew from an early age that they had Slovak roots. Even though they have some Polish roots too, all he recalls from childhood was talk about Czechoslovakia and Slovakia, with the language spoken in the background when they went over to grandparents' homes.
"I was very young, so it's hard to remember exactly," he explained. "I didn't quite realise what that connection was or I didn't realise the importance of it until recently, when we started started going down this path."
The next step
It was Jennifer that started it all.
"We had a conversation one day and she mentioned that just out of curiosity she was poking around on Ancestry.com and beginning to connect dots, almost as a hobby. I had never thought about going down that path or even exploring it, it wasn't ever really on my mind. As she started doing it, I asked her to tell me more about it. And then it just started to snowball from there and brought back a lot of memories," he explained.
Being a global citizen has long been on the back of his mind. Shevock has been living in Copenhagen, Denmark, on a work-in-residence visa for quite some time already.
"Actually, I moved here once, moved back and then came back again. I've expatriated twice. So I've been through this process," he added.
Shevock has a colleague in the UK who has dual citizenship in Australia and the UK; before all this started he had asked her to tell him about the path along which they discovered their own family and decided that dual citizenship was something they wanted.
"I saw what that meant to them as far as learning about their family, but also opening up options to live as a global citizen," he explained. As he and his sister were researching their roots, both came to the conclusion at the same time, wondering whether Slovakia even offered a way to obtain citizenship since they were not that far removed from their Slovak ancestors. Finding out that the answer is yes was both exciting and motivating. Their SLA certificates were approved a few months ago.
"It took quite a long time. There's a website that one can monitor to see the approval numbers. One morning while drinking coffee I saw our number. That was really exciting! Now we're going to the next step to try to get the citizenship."
Now that both siblings have reached this point, other family members have also shown some interest. However, even though all of them spent a lot of time together with the grandparents, they are still in more of the 'let's see how this develops' mindset, as Shevock put it.
"I don’t want to necessarily say no one else in the family feels the same way we do, but my sister and I are also the only ones that have lived abroad, in Europe, at various times. We've always been exploring outside of the US. Maybe that's also where exploring our roots stems from. I always ask myself what's around the next corner, what's over that mountain? I want to see, I want to go," he explained, adding that researching their ancestry was much the same, asking where this thread leads, how come this piece is missing, over and over again.
Shevock doesn't know what he would like to do with citizenship once he obtains it, but he likes having options.
"I don't know what the future holds. Perhaps there will be an opportunity to live in Slovakia someday, maybe retire. One thing I've learned is that I really love living in and exploring Europe, so I feel like citizenship would open up perhaps more options," he said.
"Even if I don't do anything with it, it has been rewarding in its own sense, like it's almost in some ways the goal in of itself, to honour our ancestry and our grandparents and great-grandparents. It's really hard to put into words. I just have a feeling that they would be proud, or I like to think that they would be, and hopefully smiling that we're exploring this and wanting to know more about them. Coming full circle," he explained.
A reason to visit
Shevock's personal interests involve skiing — he was a competitor on the Freeskiing World Big Mountain Tour from 2005-2009 — and now is an avid competitive cyclist in mountain biking and endurance riding — he was California State Cyclocross champion in 2014, and California State Cross Country Mountain Bike Champion 2015 and 2018.
Coincidentally, Slovakia is no slouch when it comes to skiing and cycling and has some big names to back it up, and suitable environment to boot.
Actually, since both he and his sister lived in California for a long time, he remembers seeing Slovak cycling legend Peter Sagan competing in one event. "That was pretty cool, all the big names are in our backyard," he said, jokingly.
"I mean, there's a number of guys like Sagan. And he was definitely one of the biggest names. Guys who get their start in mountain biking, if they have a certain amount of talent, they quickly realise that they can go further and generally make that switch to road cycling. Big fan," he added.
What Shevock is mostly interested in is gravel endurance racings — think multi-day adventure bike packing races from point to point. According to him, they're kind of underground events, not a big deal.
"It's more just a hobby, but it definitely keeps me active, and that's how I explore the world. Somehow at a young age I got connected with skiing and fell in love with it. I guess at one point I was sort of a semi-professional free skier and competed in events throughout Europe and in North America. But again, it was just a hobby, not the type of thing to form a career on."
When asked whether he would like to compete in some Slovak competitions, he said yes. Actually, he has already participated in races not far away, including one that started in Austria and ended in northern Italy.
"I'm always looking for unique events or things that would take me to parts of the world I haven't been before. It's always an excuse or a reason to go visit places," he said.
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